“1 Corinthians 11”

Saturday, March 11, 2017

There are two major themes in this chapter.

Verses 2-16 deal with issues of authority and headship, especially as they related to the woman’s head covering. Women who had spiritual gifts, such as praying or prophesying, were exercising their gifts without wearing a covering to show their submission to male authority.

This section has been the source of much contention and even division among the people of God over the years. Sincere believers on both sides of the issue have searched for truth and come to different conclusions about whether this covering is binding on Christian women today.

There are those disciples who believe that this passage remains binding on Christians today and that women must wear a head covering when worshiping God.

Some Christians believe this was a local custom, a societal norm that showed a woman’s subjection to a man and that, as citizens of that system, Christian women should continue to wear the veil. In other places, where no such custom existed, it was unnecessary.

Others feel that this was something done only during the age of miraculous spiritual gifts and only for those women who used those gifts in the presence of Christian men. When the gifts ceased, so did the need for this symbol of subjection.

Some, therefore, see the covering as a matter of faith for all time, while others believe it to have been a cultural tradition for first century Corinth only.

Verses 17-34 correct an abuse of the Lord’s Supper. The Corinthians had turned it from a memorial feast of Christ’s death into a common, ordinary meal. Paul reminds them of its true spiritual meaning.

He distinguishes here between items of collective worship (which the Lord’s Supper is and a regular meal is not) and home activities (which normal meals are and the Lord’s Supper is not). We must be careful not to confuse what we can do as individuals or as families and what the church can do in worship to God.

--Roger Hillis

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